A. This article is established to provide opportunities for creating compact housing developments of a traditional character in the form of hamlets and villages.

B. In order to ensure that new higher density development in the Township will be compatible with historic village and hamlet building patterns in the rural parts of the County, and that they will reinforce the "sense of place" and neighborhood feeling experienced in traditional rural settlements, the standards herein are proposed to control the location, scale and physical character of such new development, as well as the manner in which they would fit into the existing pattern of fields, woodlands and developed areas.

A. The Four-Step Site Design Process for Hamlets and Villages

1. The design process for laying out hamlets and villages shall be a variation on the four-step process for conservation subdivisions, as described in Section 401A4 of this Ordinance, In hamlets and villages, where traditional streetscape and "terminal vistas" are of greater importance, Steps Two and Three are generally reversed, so that streets and squares are located during the second step, and house sites are located immediately thereafter. The first step is to identify Greenspace lands, including both Primary and Secondary Conservation Areas.

B. Standards in both Hamlets and Villages

1. All lots shall front onto a street or a green (except for flag lots, where permitted).

2. All buildings shall have pitched roofs, two-thirds of which shall be sloped between 8/12 and 12/12. The orientation of gable ends shall be mixed, with some facing the street and others with the ridgeline parallel to the street.

3. Readers are referred to Section 804-B, Illustrated Design Guidelines.

C. Building Design Standards for the Mixed Use/Commercial Subdistrict

1. New commercial buildings may be either traditional in their architectural character, or be a contemporary expression of traditional styles and forms, respecting simply the scale, proportion and character of village shops. The massing of larger commercial buildings shall be softened in a variety of ways, including the use of projecting and recessed sections, to reduce their apparent overall bulk and volume. To harmonize with the traditional scale of commercial buildings in historic hamlets and villages, new commercial buildings shall not contain more than 10,000 sq. ft. (above grade), and those with more than 6,000 sq. ft. of floorspace (above grade) shall be of two-story construction.

2. Buildings shall not be less than one and one-half stories in height, and at least half the buildings in any single development for commercial, mixed-use and institutional buildings shall be two stories in height with respect to the average ground grade along the front building line.

3. Buildings shall generally be designed for multiple uses, with offices and/or residential units above, and shall generally have traditional sloping roofs with overhanging eaves. Desired roof materials include shingle (both wood and asphalt composition) and metal formed to resemble "standing seams." Roof color should be traditional (which encompasses a wide variety of hues, but which does not include white or tan composition shingles, or shiny unpainted metal). The use of dormers and gables is encouraged to provide visual interest.

4. Exterior wall materials may include stucco, wood clapboards (including vinyl or aluminum imitation clapboard siding-without imitation graining), native stone, or brick of a shape, color and texture very similar to that found in the historic villages and boroughs of the County. Specifically prohibited shall be brick that is white, tan, spray-painted, or used; except on rear walls, all forms of concrete block shall also be prohibited. In addition, concrete block and metal buildings shall also be excluded from this subdistrict.

5. Shopfront design shall be based upon historic examples in the County, with large display windows having low sills and high lintels. Traditional canvas awnings without interior illumination shall be encouraged, and all signs shall be of wood or metal, preferably with dark background colors and light-colored lettering. Fake window mullion grids shall be prohibited.

6. Landscaping around commercial buildings and their parking lots shall emphasize native species trees, shrubs and flowers to reduce maintenance, help ensure longevity, and to reinforce the natural spirit of the area. Species should be selected partly on the basis of their visual interest at different times of the year (spring blossoms, summer foliage, autumnal berries, winter bark and foliage). Examples of appropriate shrub selections include viburnum, laurel, lilac, clethra (sweet pepperbush), winterberry, chokeberry, holly and red-osier dogwood. Interesting non-native shnib species that are recommended include: caryopteris (bluebeard), pyrocantha (firethorn), winged euonymus (burning bush), and spirea. An excellent source book is Elizabeth DuPont's Landscaping with Native Plants in the Middle Atlantic Region, published by the Brandywine Conservancy in 1978.

D. Building Design Standards for Residential Areas

1. Single-family homes on the smaller village-scale lots (especially those less than 8,000 sq. ft.) shall generally be designed so that approximately two-thirds are oriented with their gable-ends facing the street. At least 35% of the houses shall have a covered front entry porch, raised a minimum of eighteen inches above ground level. When front porches are screened, they may be located within 10 feet of the front property line (those enclosed with windows shall observe the minimum 12 ft. front setback).

2. Homes may be located at or within five feet of side lot lines if that side either has no windows, or window sills are at least 64 inches above the finished floor elevation. Such design allows houses to be located offcenter on their lots, so that one side yard may be larger and therefore provide more usable out door space.

3. Residences housing more than one family shall be designed to emulate traditional buildings of this nature in historic settlements in the County, or shall be designed to resemble large single-family residences.

4. Stucco and painted wood clapboard siding shall be encouraged, as shall pitched roofs with slopes between 8/12 and 12/12. Housing styles, shapes and materials should be varied, within the overall theme of traditional village dwellings found in the rural parts of the County (which may also include contemporary interpretations of vernacular building forms).

5. If garages, carports or other accessory structures designed for accessory parking of automobiles in the Residential Areas are front-loaded (i.e, having their large entry door facing the street), they shall generally be set back at least 10 feet further from the front property line than the foremost facade of the principal building facing the front property line (stoops, porticos, open colonnades and open porches excluded).

6. Off-street parking for multi-family residences shall generally be located at the rear of the lot, in garages accessed by lanes or alleys.

A. Street Design

1. New streets proposed to be created as a part of any development proposal shall be integrated closely with the Township's Official Map of existing and future streets. The Official Map shall show the realignment and redesign of certain intersections and road segments to facilitate traffic flow and improve safety.

2. Rectilinear street layouts are generally preferred, with occasional diagonal elements to enhance visual interest, although curvilinear layouts shall be acceptable when designed to interconnect and to produce terminal vistas of protected open space or prominent structures.

3. Streets shall be aligned so that their terminal vistas are of greens of other open space, or civic or institutional buildings, wherever possible. Where this is not possible, every effort shall be made to terminate those streets with buildings of above-average size, whose architecture shall be encouraged to be special in one way or another (See Section 804, Illustrated Design Guidelines).

4. Streets shall be interconnected as far as practicable (employing cul-de-sacs only where essential), and they may also be supplemented with back lanes or alleys. Where cul- de-sacs are deemed to be unavoidable, continuous pedestrian circulation shall be provided for by connecting sidewalks that link the end of the cul-de-sac with the next street (or open space).

5. To the greatest extent practicable, streets shall be designed to have maximum lengths of 600 feet between intersections, and maximum lengths of 1,200 feet before terminating at three-way "T" intersections or angling off in a diagonal direction. (This design approach helps to reduce traffic speed, making the development more friendly to pedestrians.) Blocks greater than 600 feet long shall generally be provided with cross- block pedestrian connections at mid-block locations.

6. Streets shall be laid out to promote pedestrian circulation and ease of access from all points in the Residential Areas to the Village Mixed Use/Commercial Area.

7. Easements shall be reserved to permit streets to be extended to allow adjoining properties to be connected in the future, if so desired

8. Collector streets shall generally connect existing municipal roads to central greens in each subdistrict.

9. The street width standards listed below take into account the need for on-street parking spaces, which generally increase as lot widths decrease.